


Nurse's Office

by loogandthemaidenofwind



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: <3, F/M, Idiots in Love, also mentions runaan, but little minor injuries tho, injuries, lujanne knows whats up, mentions ez, might hate this later, nurse's office, rayla hates math, rayla is dumb dumb, she cant cope with feelings, wingwoman lujanne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28516728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loogandthemaidenofwind/pseuds/loogandthemaidenofwind
Summary: Rayla meets a cute boy in the nurse's office, and she's desperate to keep seeing him.
Relationships: Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 96





	Nurse's Office

**Author's Note:**

> what's this? me publishing more TDP works? lol
> 
> i hope yall enjoy!!

To be fair, the first time Rayla went to the nurse’s office, it was _actually_ an accident.

She had slipped while walking down the hall, and while she was normally pretty good at catching herself, _this_ time she’d skinned her knee on the concrete floor. Now she was dragging herself to the nurse’s office, trying to ignore the confused glances everyone was giving her.

 _Move along, you stupid fools_ , she thought grumpily. _Don’t you have better things to do?_

She limped into the nurse’s office, clutching her wounded knee. The place was empty other than the nurse, Lujanne, which made Rayla feel a little better. _Less witnesses to my humiliation, thank god._

Lujanne was organizing something in a cupboard, and she gave Rayla a quick once-over before turning back. “Skinned knee, dear?”

“Yep,” Rayla mumbled grumpily, taking a look around. The hospital bed was an awful shade of navy blue, but everything else- the chairs, the sink, the cupboard, the walls and floor- was blank white . Even the door leading into the next room was blank white. She wrinkled her nose. _Ugh._

“Callum!” Lujanne called into the other room. “Come here and help this young lady for me, please.”

“Be right there!” a voice called back, and a boy skidded into the room as the door swung open. He smiled awkwardly at Rayla. “Hi, I’m Callum! Right this way.”

Rayla stared at him, and all she could think was _oh my god_.

This boy was _cute._

“Uhm, hello?” the boy- Callum- asked, and Rayla snapped back to reality.

“Oh, uh, sorry. Yeah,” she mumbled. As she followed him into the other room, she still could not tear her eyes off of him. He had a head of brown hair that was so adorably messy, Rayla had to resist from reaching out and ruffling it. A big blue jacket wrapped around his small-looking frame, and a red scarf wound around his neck. The image of his awkward smile was still pasted in her head too- sweet if not a little dorky.

Like she said- _cute._

The other room was pretty similar to the first room. It had one of those beds you see in doctor’s offices, a few chairs, a cupboard, a sink, and a computer. It sadly still had the ugly color scheme, but oh well.

Callum gestured for her to hop onto the bed, and she did. She swung her legs like a little kid as Callum sat down at the computer.

“So, I gotta run through some questions with you first.”

“Shouldn’t you, I dunno, be getting somethin’ for my knee?” Rayla asked, kicking her injured leg back and forth and wincing a little from the sting.

Callum blushed, and wow, he got even cuter when he did that. “Uh, right, sorry! I’m not very good at this yet. Be right back!”

He ran back into the other room, and Rayla let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She kept her eyes on the entrance, waiting for him to come back, and trying to ignore the fuzzy feelings in her head and stomach.

Callum came back with a few bandages and some kind of lotion. “Uh, I’m gonna have to touch your leg a little bit. Sorry.”

“You’re fine,” she assured him. He cleaned up the wound with a wet cloth and wrapped it in one of the bandages, and then rubbed some of the lotion around it. Rayla tried not to blush as his fingers made contact with her injured knee.

 _Seriously, Rayla?_ she scolded herself. _So he’s touching your knee. Big deal._

“Leave that bandage on for 24 hours and then check for infections,” instructed Callum. “If there is one, then go see a doctor; if not, put on a new bandage. And keep doing that every day until it’s healed all the way.”

“Aye aye, captain,” she joked feebly. He smiled at her- ugh, that smile was melting her insides- before turning back to the computer again.

“Okay, _now_ I’m gonna ask questions. Ready?”

“Hit me with your best shot.”

“Okay.” Callum began to type something into the computer as Rayla waited. “Full name?”

“Rayla Callisto.”

“Grade?”

“10th.”

“Oh, same!” Callum turned back to her, grinning, before letting out a loud ahem and turning away. “Student ID?”

“19472.”

He typed the numbers in, frowning at the computer, before looking back at her with a satisfied smile. “Okay, got it. You’re free to go if you want.”

Part of Rayla knew that she should be getting up, thanking Callum, and going on her merry way.

But the other part had something different in mind.

“Actually, d’you mind if I stick around for the rest of this period? I still feel a little wobbly.”

“Not at all,” Callum replied, and Rayla’s heart soared.

An awkward silence fell between them, and Rayla began panicking. She hadn’t thought about the _conversation_ aspect.

“So, uh, how’d you end up helping Lujanne?”

“I’m free this period, so I started hanging around in here,” he explained. Rayla nodded along, more focused on his voice than anything. “Eventually I just started helping out Lujanne. She’s cool.”

“She actually lives down the street from where I live.” Rayla lowered her voice conspicuously. “She does some weird stuff, honestly. Sometimes I swear that I see her on her lawn and in her house at the same time.”

“No way,” Callum laughed. He scooted his chair closer to her, looking around to make sure Lujanne wasn’t there before whispering back. “Don’t tell anyone, but that cupboard over there is filled with tarot cards and some weird-looking gem things. I think Lujanne may be a witch.”

Rayla giggled with a hand over her mouth to muffle it. “That would explain all the weird plants she grows.”

“What kind of weird plants?”

“Like, rare flowers and herbs and stuff.” Rayla leaned closer, not really noticing just how close they already were. All that mattered was the cute boy staring at her with a cute smile and cute enraptured eyes. “She has a giant tree too, and I think she has some sort of rare bird as a pet. I see it flittin’ around sometimes.”

“Wow!” Callum stared at her admiringly, and for a second, Rayla could feel her heart beating a loud rhythm into her chest.

“Well, I see you two are having fun,” an unexpected voice cut in.

Rayla and Callum both whipped their heads around to see Lujanne staring daggers into them from the doorframe, and _that’s_ when Rayla realized just how close they were. She pulled her head back, praying that Callum hadn’t noticed.

But judging by how red the back of Callum’s neck was, he probably did.

“ _Are_ you a witch, Lujanne?” asked Callum.

“Yeah, _are_ you?” Rayla added, flushing when Callum turned to shoot her a grin.

“Maybe, maybe not.” Lujanne gave them both a pointed glare. “Well, run along now, you two. It’s almost lunchtime.”

“Yes ma’am,” Callum answered, and he helped Rayla off the bed and out of the room. She would probably be fine on her own, but _maybe_ she was pretending to limp a little so Callum would keep holding her hand. Maybe.

They said goodbye right outside the nurse’s office, Callum gracing her with that awkward smile before making his way back down the hall. “See you around!” he called behind him.

“Yeah, see you around.” Rayla smiled and clutched a hand over her heart.

_I hope I do see him around._

\---

Contrary to her belief, Rayla did _not_ see Callum around.

They had no classes together, never saw each other in the halls, and had different lunch periods. Curse this school’s scheduling system.

And yet he still lingered in her thoughts for an entire week. She had to see him again.

So _maybe_ dropping a whole pile of textbooks on her hand was a bit much. Maybe. If it let her see Callum again, she didn’t really mind.

She walked into the nurse’s office, groaning and massaging her wrist, and was delighted to see that her endeavors were not in vain. Callum was sitting by the window, scribbling something in a small book, and he turned around when he heard her footsteps. “Rayla!”

His attention was immediately on her hand, and before Rayla could even blink, he was next to her in a flash. “What happened?” he asked, gingerly holding up her hand to the light.

“I dropped some textbooks on it.” Rayla shrugged as if indifferent, though her red face at Callum holding her hand was probably a contrast.

“Well, I’ll just get you an ice pack. It just looks swollen, so it should probably be fine.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Callum ran into the back room as Rayla observed the room again. Sadly, it still had that ugly decor. Lujanne had awful taste.

Speaking of Lujanne… where was she?

Callum returned and handed her the ice pack. Rayla hissed a little as it made contact with her. She really hated the cold, and even the warmth on her face couldn’t combat it.

“Is Lujanne here?” asked Rayla, pressing the cold ice pack to her hand. _Ugh, that hurts. The things I do to see cute boys…_

“Nah, she’s off running errands or something. So we got the place to ourselves.”

Callum probably realized just how suggestive that sounded, because he immediately turned away from her with a burning-red face. Rayla discovered that she was blushing too, and awkwardly cleared her throat to break the silence.

_Damn. Why is this so hard?_

“So, while you’re here, can you do me a favor?” asked Callum.

“Sure.”

“Do you mind if I draw you?”

_Well, that was certainly forward of him._

“Yeah, sure,” said Rayla. “But only if you show me when you’re done.”

“Deal!” Callum beamed at her, and goddamnit, if he smiled one more time Rayla was going to melt into a pile of lovesick goo.

He immediately began rummaging through his backpack, and Rayla suddenly felt a lot more awkward than she already did. “Uhm, do you need me to sit still, or..?

“Hm?” Callum looked back up at her, now holding a worn-looking sketchbook and a pencil. “Oh. Uh, yeah, but you can read or something too if you want.”

Rayla ended up playing games on her phone the whole time, occasionally looking over at Callum. He was cute when he concentrated- brows furrowed and tongue stuck out, sometimes muttering things to himself.

It was a burning kind of awkward. But there was also a comfortable feeling to it, and that feeling grew and grew until both of them were at peace with what they were doing.

Finally, after Rayla had beaten five levels of her game, Callum hesitantly spoke up. “Okay, it’s done. You can come look now.”

She slid off the bed and stepped next to him, gasping a little as she took in the drawing. It was just a sketch of her perched on the nurse’s bed, absently scrolling through her phone, but Callum made her look… amazing. He had captured her down to the last detail, from the markings under her eyes to her wispy silver hair.

It was the sweetest thing Rayla had ever seen.

“Callum, it’s... amazing!”

“You really think so?”

“I know so!” Rayla marveled. “Where’d you learn to draw like that?”

“My mom taught me,” answered Callum, his tone suddenly changing. “She was way better than I am.”

“Oh.” The _“was”_ hung between them, sad and cold, and Rayla rushed to change the subject. “But it’s beautiful, really. Thank you.”

“I should thank you, really. The only other person who models for me is my brother, and he’s _always_ moving around.”

“Really?” Rayla laughed. “How old is he?”

“Ten.” Callum smiled fondly at the mention of him. “But enough about me, what do you like doing in your spare time?”

“I play piano.”

“Whoa, cool!”

“I guess.” Rayla blushed. Their conversation was actually going somewhere. “My uncle… well not really my uncle, but he’s like an uncle? Anyway, his name’s Runaan. He teaches me.”

“That’s awesome.” Callum’s eyes were shining- they were a neutral shade of leaf-green, Rayla suddenly noticed, eager and excited. “I always wanted to learn an instrument, never picked it up. But maybe sometime.”

“I don’t think you’d want Runaan teaching you,” giggled Rayla. “He gets pretty harsh. Always making sure I practice at least an hour a day.”

“Yeah, sounds scary.”

That burning-awkward-comfortable silence fell between them again, and eventually Callum leaned over to draw more and Rayla got out some geometry homework to start on. She absolutely _hated_ math, but seeing as she had geometry right after lunch and the homework was due then, she should get started.

She cursed softly as she looked at the problem. The shape on the graph was obviously a parallelogram, why the hell did she have to prove it?

“Need some help?” Callum spoke up unexpectedly. His sketchbook was cast aside, but Rayla saw several new drawings on the pages.

“Yes, please,” Rayla groaned. “I have no idea what this question wants from me.”

Callum read over the question, brow furrowing. “Well, you have to prove it’s a parallelogram. And it’s on a graph.”

“But you can already see that it’s a parallelogram!” Rayla gestured wildly at the page. “Look, the sides are parallel!”

“Well, you gotta prove it.”

“Thanks a lot, genius. How do I do that?” she asked sarcastically. She didn’t mean to get snappy with Callum, but math in general frustrated her. If there was one thing she hated, it was numbers.

“Look, if the sides are parallel, they’ll have the same slope. So just find the slope with this formula.” Callum plucked the pencil from her hand and scribbled it down. His handwriting was nice to look at; messy, letters slanting to the right like they had somewhere to go.

Rayla nodded and took the pencil back. She circled the formula that Callum had written- _not_ because it was _his_ writing. Not at all.

Well, maybe a little.

She managed to solve the problem and looked over at Callum. “So… is this correct?”

He gave it a quick once-over before nodding in approval. “Yep, you got it!”

They shared a grin, and for a second, Rayla felt her heart pounding just as hard as last time. The feeling was absolutely exhilarating.

And of course, the moment was cut off by the shrill bell.

Rayla cursed again. “Shoot. Guess I’m finishing this at lunch.”

“Good luck.” Callum helped Rayla off the bed and out of the nurse's office, parting ways with a quick little wave. “Bye!”

“Bye, Callum.”

\---

And just like that, it somehow became a routine. She’d get a minor little injury every week, make her way to the nurse’s office, make an excuse to stay, and talk with Callum until lunchtime.

She was lucky that she had a free period at that time, otherwise she would be missing so much class time. She was also lucky that Callum and Lujanne didn’t seem to notice how much she showed up, and how much time she spent there.

The rational part of her was screaming at her to just ask for Callum’s number. They knew each other pretty well at this point, so it’s not like it would be _weird_.

But the other part of her absolutely refused, because of all the what-ifs. What if he didn’t see her the way she saw him? What if they weren’t as close as she thought? What if it was weird for him? Would she ruin their relationship?

She couldn’t risk that.

However, she was running out of ideas for self-inflicted, minor, not-super-harmful injuries. So, for this week, she’d have to turn to getting other people’s help.

And there was only one person in this whole school that would comply with her request.

Soren.

She wouldn’t call them the best of friends. Soren seemed to have something against Rayla and Rayla thought his eyebrows were weird (seriously, they were like two black caterpillars on his forehead). But he was the only person she could think of who’d go along with this, so at lunch, she went off to find him.

She managed to catch him at his locker, and she casually leaned against the one next to it. “Soren.”

“Huh? Oh, Rayla,” he said, a slight sneer in his voice.

Rayla forced herself to take a deep breath. _Just tolerate this for a few minutes and then you can see Callum_. “Look, I need a favor.”

Soren quirked one of his caterpillar-eyebrows. “A favor?”

“I need you to punch me in the face.”

“Sorry, I don’t do fav- wait, what did you say?”

“I said I need you to punch me in the face.” Rayla sighed irritably.

“Punch you in the face?” Soren looked extremely confused, like his last two brain cells were still trying to process her request. “But why?”

“Just- just do it already, okay?”

Soren folded his arms stubbornly. “I won’t do it until you tell me why.”

 _All this trouble just to see a cute boy,_ Rayla thought to herself. _But he’s also sweet, funny, he draws, and…_

“You’re trying to see a cute boy?”

Rayla slapped a hand over her mouth.

“...please don’t tell me I said that out loud.”

“You said that out loud.”

Rayla groaned and slid down the locker just a little. “Okay, fine. There’s your reason. Now are you gonna do it, or no?”

Soren looked hesitant, staring down at his fist. “Why don’t you just ask for his number or something?”

“Cause it’s embarrassing, okay?” snapped Rayla. “Ever heard of butterflies in the stomach?”

“Just digest them!”

Rayla sighed. This was like having a conversation with a boulder. No, even a _boulder_ had more sense. “Ugh. Just… just do it, okay? Please.”

“Well… okay.”

The punch was probably lighter than what Soren could do, but it still left Rayla seeing stars as she reeled backwards. He’d hit her right on the left cheek, and she pressed a hand to it as she began stumbling to the nurse’s office. “Thank you!” she called behind her, leaving a mystified Soren in her wake.

\---

“Hello, Rayla,” Lujanne greeted as she stepped into the nurse’s office. She was probably used to her by now.

“Hi Lujanne,” Rayla muttered absently, looking around the room. “Where’s Callum?”

“He’s not here today,” Lujanne replied cheerfully, and Rayla felt her heart sink. _I let myself get punched in the face for this?_ “But let’s tend to your face, shall we?”

“Do you know if he’ll be back later?” asked Rayla.

“Why are you so concerned, hm?” hummed Lujanne as she rummaged through a cabinet.

Rayla blushed and looked away. “W-Well, I just-”

“You’re taken quite the liking to him, I see,” Lujanne continued in a sing-song voice.

“Wh- Hey, that’s none of your business,” Rayla sputtered defensively. Was she really that obvious?

“Well, it’s written all over your face.”

Crap. Guess she was really that obvious.

“Okay, so maybe I like him. A lot,” Rayla admitted. “And _maybe_ I keep getting myself injured on purpose just so I can keep seeing him. What’s it to you, huh?”

“Oh, it’s nothing to me,” laughed Lujanne. “But I bet it means something to Callum. He’s standing right outside this door, y’know.”

“Wait, WHAT?”

And right on cue, the door swung open, revealing an extremely flustered Callum behind it.

“I’m going to kill you, Lujanne!” Rayla seethed. But the woman had disappeared into the back room, her laughter echoing behind her.

Before Rayla could go give her a piece of her mind, she felt a warm hand on her shoulder and looked back. Callum was standing there, his face red as his scarf, but his grip steady and firm.

“Oh, uh, Callum.” Rayla suddenly felt extremely shy and avoided his gaze, looking down at her shoes instead. “I… sorry I didn’t tell you, I just…”

“Uh, yeah,” he agreed, and Rayla felt disappointment sinking from the top of her head to her shoes. “But, look, Rayla. I haven’t really been honest either.”

“What do you mean?”

Callum looked around nervously, scratching the back of his head. “Well, I… uh. Wow. This really isn’t easy.”

“Oh, spit it out already,” she mumbled. If he was going to reject her, he might as well do it quickly.

“Well, I like you too. A lot. More than a lot, really.”

Her head snapped up in surprise. “What?”

“But I can’t believe you’d get yourself hurt just to see me.” His hand brushed her swelling cheek. “What happened here?”

“I may have asked Soren to punch me in the face.”

“Oh my god.” Callum shook his head. “Part of me is kind of flattered? But the other part kinda wishes you’d just asked for my number or something.”

“Yeah, I know,” Rayla laughed nervously. Now that the fear of rejection was gone, all that was left in her stomach was butterflies (that she could not digest, no matter what Soren said). “Sorry, sorry.”

Callum gave her a small, soft smile, and there returned that heart-pounding feeling. She would never grow tired of it. “Well then. Let’s get you an ice pack. And then we can meet up outside the nurse’s office, at like… a park, or something.”

Rayla laughed loudly, happiness and joy and pure _relief_ that this wasn’t all for nothing fluttering around inside her.

“Sounds like a plan.”

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: I DO NOT CONDONE GETTING INJURED ON PURPOSE TO SEE SOME CUTE PERSON IN THE NURSES OFFICE, IF YOU HAVE A CRUSH, PLS JUST TELL THEM OR ASK FOR THEIR NUMBER OR SOMETHING 
> 
> leave kudos and comment (if you want), id appreciate it a ton! thank you so so much for reading!! <3


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